1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to clutches of bait reels for fishing and, more particularly, to a clutch of a bait reel in which a separate contact piece made of rigid material is coupled to a contact end of a ratchet pawl coming into contact with gear teeth of a ratchet wheel, so that the contact piece directly receives a load and frictional resistance occurring when the gear teeth of the ratchet wheel press the ratchet pawl by rotating a handle of the bait reel, thus preventing the ratchet pawl, which is made of comparatively soft material to facilitate the operation of forming the ratchet pawl, from being easily damaged.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, bait reels used in lure fishing include a reel frame, a spool, a handle and a side cover. The spool is rotatably mounted to the reel frame. A fishing line is wound around the spool. The handle is provided on one side of the reel frame to rotate the spool. The side cover is coupled to the other side of the reel frame.
Furthermore, a clutch which controls rotation of the spool and a clutch-operation control mechanism which controls the operation of the clutch are installed in the reel frame.
A representative conventional technique (hereinafter, referred to as “a prior art”) pertaining to the clutch-operation control mechanism was proposed in Korean Utility Model Registration No. 0191968 (date: May 31, 2000) which was filed by Banax Co., LTD. and entitled “Clutch for bait cast reel”.
The clutch of the prior art includes a ratchet wheel which is fastened to a rotating shaft of a handle, a clutch cam which is converted between a clutch-ON state and a clutch-OFF state depending on manipulation of a thumb bar, and a ratchet pawl which integrally extends from the clutch cam. The ratchet pawl is locked to or removed from gear teeth formed around the circumferential outer surface of the ratchet wheel depending on the operation of the clutch.
In the prior art, when a user pushes the thumb bar and converts the clutch into the clutch-OFF state, the ratchet pawl moves in conjunction with the thumb bar and is locked to the gear teeth of the ratchet wheel. In this state, when the user rotates the handle, the gear teeth of the ratchet wheel fastened to the rotating shaft of the handle push the ratchet pawl. At this time, a comparatively large load is applied to the surface of the ratchet pawl that comes into contact with the gear teeth of the ratchet wheel.
Typically, the ratchet wheel is formed by pressing a stainless steel plate, but the ratchet pawl is formed by molding zinc due to the complexity of the shape thereof. Because the strength of zinc is lower than that of stainless steel, the contact surface of the ratchet pawl may be easily damaged by pressure applied to the contact surface when the ratchet wheel pushes the ratchet pawl.